Madhu Anand, a Cisco Leadership Fellow and a Business Operations Manager at Cisco Systems, had prepared herself for the poverty of Kyrgyzstan. She had committed six full months to helping create a technology and software backbone designed to increase the operational efficiency of Mercy Corps microcredit institution in Kyrgyzstan, Kompanion. Of the country’s five million citizens, almost one in two are below the poverty line.

What Madhu found in Kyrgyzstan would challenge her assumptions of what poverty means.

“I went to a field site in Karakol, a town of 60,000 people located about 400 kilometers east of Bishkek [Kyrgyzstan’s capital], and saw lights, hot and cold running water, and people using the Internet. I had expected the town to have fewer amenities. Then I went to the rest room…

…an outhouse with an open pit toilet.

I wouldn’t have been surprised if Karakol was without electricity and running water. I WAS surprised at the big anomaly between the Internet, lights, electricity and… no flush toilet. Clearly their priorities are driven by what technology can offer for the future. Basics, if they work, will be addressed later! This indicates to me a huge market for technology and other consumer items.”

Madhu’s true measure of success will only come after the technology and software backbone she is helping to develop is finally implemented AND Kompanion’s transactional costs are reduced. By that point, Madhu will be long gone.

For her part, Madhu feels fortunate to be participating in the Cisco Leadership Fellows program. The experience has blended corporate social responsibility and professional development. “I am learning an enormous amount that I wouldn’t learn in my job at Cisco.”

My final question to Madhu: Would you do this again?
Her answer: Anytime.

To learn more about corporate service fellowship programs, visit BuildingBlocks International or contact info@bblocks.org.

What Madhu didn’t realize was that SHE would be the one pushing her team to strive for ideal solutions.

“People in development are used to not having funds. So they don’t think big, they think small.” Unfortunately, nongovernmental organizations face a perpetual lack of funding and tend to plan based on the bottom end of what is possible. So, Madhu called upon her for-profit experience.

Madhu suggests that her team think about optimal solutions. “If we think big,” she says, “we can get at least 80%. If we think small, we get 80% of much less.”

Madhu presented her team with a different way of thinking about solutions, but she did add an element of realism. “Shoot for the moon,” she says. “But you must also have a backup plan if resource constraints necessitate scaling down.”

After two weeks of consideration, her team is now on board. As for her own learning, Madhu is developing a deeper understanding of priorities. What is enough knowledge to make decisions? How do you do more with less? These are questions that people in every profession consider at some point. They are also questions that Madhu FEELS acutely within her new role.

“This is just a start.” Madhu is convinced. “If we can increase efficiencies in the structure of microfinance institutions, we can create a domino effect. At the point where people step above the poverty line, they can then begin to look beyond the next square meal to improving their lives.”

Madhu’s six-month placement through Cisco’s Leadership Fellows program will be an important piece of the puzzle. If her job is done right, the technology and software backbone she helps develop could be replicated worldwide - and that means some serious scaling up.

To learn more about corporate service fellowship programs, visit BuildingBlocks International or contact info@bblocks.org.

Ironically, Madhu’s first lesson as a Leadership Fellow was the importance of creating an exit strategy.

“My project could last an entire year,” Madhu realizes now. Her challenge is to ensure that when her Leadership Fellowship with Mercy Corps ends in August and she returns to her job at Cisco, the team she leaves behind is well prepared to keep the momentum going and meet success without her.


A Kompanion for Microfinance in Kyrgyzstan

Microfinancing has been used as a poverty alleviation tool for decades. Yet, most microfinance institutions still have high transactional costs. Improved operational efficiency and a creative use of technology can reduce these transactional costs – and allow the microfinance model to be scaled.

Most of Kyrgyzstan’s citizens, particularly in rural areas, have little or no access to either savings vehicles or credit. Mercy Corps created Kompanion Financial Group to serve as a community development finance institution that would “foster the growth of micro-and small-business entrepreneurs…and help clients build healthy, financially stable communities.” Kompanion opened in October 2004 and is now the third largest financial institution in Kyrgyzstan in terms of numbers of clients.

Yet, Madhu’s initial review of Kompanion’s infrastructure uncovered that their software consists of multiple unlinked programs from different vendors that together lack the ability to do real time reporting. Without a more comprehensive, improved technology Kompanion won’t be able to achieve sustainability.


The realization

While Madhu’s initial inclination was to approach her assignment with her corporate hat on and “get it done,” she quickly realized that, “If I just go and do it for [my team], they won’t be able to complete such a project next time.” In addition to her role as a business advisor for the Kyrgyzstan project she soon added the role of coach and facilitator. Madhu wants to empower her Kyrgyz team to do the work and learn from the experience. In only a few months she will be gone.

For now, Madhu makes contacts and finds out what technology and software is available in the market. She finds the sources of information and shares the info with her team. The Mercy Corps/Kompanion team will drive implementation – not Madhu.

To learn more about corporate service fellowship programs, visit BuildingBlocks International or contact info@bblocks.org.

Last February, Madhu Anand left her comfortable job as a Business Operations Manager in Cisco Systems’ San Jose headquarters and began a six-month, full- time corporate service fellowship supporting microfinance in Kyrgyzstan.

Through Cisco’s Leadership Fellows program, Madhu had stepped into a job that would be unlike any other at Cisco.

Cisco Systems and Mercy Corps chose Madhu Anand to examine the business processes of Mercy Corps’ community development financial institution and use technology to streamline their daily tasks and automate processes.

But the effect of Madhu’s work will be felt far beyond the landlocked borders of Kyrgyzstan. Her expertise will help create a technology and software backbone designed to increase the operational efficiency of Mercy Corps microcredit programs and other microfinancing institutions worldwide.

Kyrgyzstan is a country of 5 million people squeezed between China to the south, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to the west and Kazakhstan to the north. 40% of the Kyrgyz live below the poverty line. Madhu knew that her first challenge would be language. In Kyrgyzstan they speak Russian and Kyrgyz - and Kyrgyz has yet to make its way into Rosetta Stone language courses.

Fortunately for Madhu, the people at Mercy Corps and the management team of the local microfinance institution she would work with, Kompanion, all speak English.

Madhu had wanted an opportunity to apply her training and expertise to a social cause. Cisco’s three-year-old Leadership Fellows Program allowed her to do just that. The Leadership Fellows program allows high potential Cisco employees to apply their professional training and experience toward some of the world’s most intractable social problems. For Madhu, the Leadership Fellows program was an opportunity to help a segment of society exit the cycle of poverty. In Mercy Corps, an international nonprofit, Madhu had found the perfect fit.

Madhu works today with the Mercy Corps field office in Bishkek. She is based in Portland, Oregon and makes frequent trips to the Kyrgyzstani field office so that she can maintain her technology connections and bring the best technology to her assignment.

As Madhu prepared to leave on her first foray, she considered the role of a lifetime. In the next six months she would be bringing new knowledge into Mercy Corps’ Kyrgyzstani microfinance institution to help construct effective back office operations, to identify bottlenecks, and to figure out how to upgrade their infrastructure, while providing strategic support and setting up the project team. It sounded like a daunting task to accomplish in six months; Madhu felt she was ready.

To learn more about corporate service fellowship programs, visit BuildingBlocks International or contact info@bblocks.org.

As an accountant, Oren’s biggest lesson has turned out to be that “one plus one CAN equal more than two.”

After his experience in Orissa, something that once may have seemed ridiculous makes perfect sense. “If we can pull together as a three-person team in India – without having a clue – and complete a professional, successful project for Gram Vikas, just imagine what we could do in an area in which we actually have expertise. Imagine how much more we could develop our businesses and sustain our future.”

One year later, Oren has found another way that one plus one can equal three. His wife is pregnant with their first baby. If it is a girl, maybe they’ll name her Orissa.

One year after his trip to India, Oren is in his office, where he has hung a reminder to himself and to his team to “REACH” out to each other. As you walk into his office, you know exactly where Oren is coming from personally and professionally. Oren’s passion, caring and dedication are not characteristics that you normally associate with a tax partner. But perhaps that is the point of PwC’s Ulysses Fellowship program. When you speak to Oren today, he talks of creating and nurturing meaningful client relationships.

“A true caring environment is the type of environment that distinguishes one business from another business, ” Oren says. And those qualities that he found in the countryside of Orissa, the caring and the teaming and the emotional depth, have allowed him to perform at a truly unexpected level with his clients.

Programs like the Ulysses Fellowship are helping to define the experiences of business leaders around the country and around the world. To date, over 2,300 corporate service fellows from numerous companies have developed their leadership skills in the crucible of a new culture. According to Oren, “You are put to the test and you find out what you are made of.”

From the isolated countryside of Orissa, Oren and his partners visited New Delhi and Bhubaneshwar to meet with government officials and NGO stakeholders.

Their mantra became REACH out.

Reach outside of Gram Vikas, reach outside of Orissa, and reach outside of their comfort zone.

And REACH in – reach in to the amazing people within Gram Vikas to make the improbable happen.

The PwC team even turned REACH into an acronym - Rural Empowerment Action by Connecting Humans.

Unfortunately, despite Oren’s success at reaching out to community leaders throughout India, the one person he had difficulty reaching was his wife. For the first month, his team relied on two phone lines that remained busy until 1:00am. The second month was better. They were able to find an internet connection by climbing to the top of a village roof and rigging up an unstable connection to the outside world.

It was Oren's first day in Orissa and the PwC team had no project plan. They had no idea what they would be doing. And they had only people within the nongovernmental organization (NGO), Gram Vikas, to rely on. The importance of human connection was about to become exceedingly clear.

With only seven weeks left, Oren and his partners (Marja of the Netherlands and Ivan of Mexico) defined a new project– they would create a ten-year strategic plan for expanding Gram Vikas. This expansion would enable the NGO to serve rural poor throughout India.

As a tax partner at PwC, ten-year strategic plans were not in Oren’s job description. He had agreed to complete a project totally outside of his expertise using only the support of the human beings around him as resources. It turned out that that was enough.

They considered returning home, but instead of choosing the easy option, they agreed to be open and honest with Gram Vikas’ Executive Director, Joe. The truth was that Joe never thought that his request for three PwC partners would be granted. In his experience, the poverty and the health problems of the area were too daunting for those in India, much less strangers from a big company.

The team decided to use the graduate student’s preliminary research to come up with a strategy for organizational expansion. Their new project was to develop a five-year strategic business plan for expansion focused on a marketing and networking strategy to support scaling Gram Vikas’ successful rural health program.

The three PwC partners would interview Gram Vikas’ stakeholders, create a strategy and provide concrete deliverables to help the organization.

And they had only seven weeks left.

“The town or village where we stayed is not even on a map,” Oren said. He and the team flew from Ireland to New Dehli, and on to the capital of Orissa, Bhubaneshwar. They then spent four hours on roads that rivaled only a modern Noah’s ark in their ability to hold all living things and all conceivable vehicles. “It was probably one of the scariest experiences of my life…literally every five minutes, a car would just barely miss us.”

The mandate that they had discussed in Ireland was to gather basic data to find out what investment of resources would be required to expand Gram Vikas’ rural program to more communities.

Unfortunately, a few conversations with Gram Vikas staff members revealed that a visiting Harvard graduate student had already completed the research project that Oren and his partners (Marja from the Netherlands and Ivan from Mexico) had signed up for.

Surprise!

Oren Penn was chosen in early 2005 to serve as a Ulysses leadership fellow from PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) Washington, DC headquarters.

In June of 2005 he was married and one week later he began an eight-week, full-time corporate service fellowship focused on improving health in rural Orissa, India.

Through PwC’s leadership development program, Ulysses, Oren gained a leadership opportunity unlike any other he could have received in the company. The Ulysses program is a global, firm-wide leadership development program for future leaders of PwC. A partner must have at least three years of experience to be considered for a Ulysses fellowship.

Oren and his partners arrived at their location outside of Bhubaneshwar, to find that the project they signed up for was already being completed by someone else. And they decided to stay anyway.

The challenge of Oren’s cultural immersion is the point of PwC’s Ulysses program. Through Ulysses, PwC places their future leaders in a team of “type A” partners from very different backgrounds, puts all three in a totally new situation, and expects that team to create positive results for the nonprofit client.

“I was completely fascinated by the program,” remembers Oren. “The idea of going to a completely different country and working with partners from different countries… This was a once in a lifetime thing.” Understanding the intellectual reality of working in a different culture and managing change, Oren would be tasked with living diversity and change management.

When Oren finally met his two other team members at a Ulysses preparation program in Ireland, he recalled, “We made a pact that we would be open and honest with each other throughout the experience. It was the only way that we would be able to survive.”

Oren and his fellow team members, Marja Spaans-den Heijer of the Netherlands and Ivan Jaso of Mexico, would soon be tested.

Oren’s team met with the Executive Director of Gram Vikas, Joe Madiath, while still training in Ireland. Joe explained that very few Indians travel to the state of Orissa or to the area in which the team would live for almost two months. Joe looked around and considered the people who would be his charges for the next several weeks and said his first six words, “ You are three very brave people.”

We would add Oren’s new wife to that list.

PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Indian Community-based organization, Gram Vikas, chose Oren along with two other PwC partners to develop a marketing and networking strategy for Gram Vikas’ Rural Health and Environment Programme.

Gram Vikas, which means village development, is dedicated to addressing severe poverty and unsafe health conditions in Orissa’s community of “untouchables.” The Rural Health and Environment Programme develops critical infrastructure to ensure that local people have access to clean water and sanitation systems. According to Oren, 80% of the disease in the area – including malaria and tuberculosis –is caused by unsafe water and living conditions. Clearly the 11 vaccine shots he had to take before leaving were evidence of the danger and concern.

The state of Orissa is one of the poorest states in India. Bordered to the north by the state of West Bengal (whose capital is Calcutta) and to the east by the Bay of Bengal, almost 50% of Orissa’s population rests squarely below the poverty line. The average rural Orrisan (85% of the state’s inhabitants) lives to an age of only 56, a reality in part due to the low access to clean drinking water.

In July of 2005, Oren Penn left his comfortable job as an international tax partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) Washington, DC headquarters and began an eight-week, full-time corporate service fellowship focused on improving health in rural Orissa, India.

Through PwC’s Ulysses leadership development program, Oren gained a leadership opportunity unlike any other he could have received in the company. The Ulysses program is a global, firm wide leadership development program for future leaders of PwC. A partner must have at least three years of experience to be considered for a Ulysses fellowship.

Oren had been married only one week when he left for India. He spent his honeymoon with two PwC partners discovering the importance of trust and communication.